Expensive Uncertainty: Cutting Stormwater Funding is a Mistake

Expensive Uncertainty: Cutting Stormwater Funding is a Mistake

[Note: This guest blog post was written by Liam O’Meara, General Manager at Environmental Quality Resources (EQR).  EQR is one of Blue Water Baltimore’s partners in implementing stormwater projects.] We’ve all heard plenty about Maryland’s stormwater program and the ever-present stormwater fee debate. As the rhetoric heats up this legislative season I want to bring a…

Holding Polluters Accountable: Our Intent to Sue A Chemical Factory

Holding Polluters Accountable: Our Intent to Sue A Chemical Factory

Today, Blue Water Baltimore filed a notice of intent to sue a chemical factory for releasing more than twelve times permitted levels of nitrogen pollution into a tributary to the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay. The notice is the first legal action to result from a systematic review by our Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and the Environmental Integrity…

What does “Warm December” mean for native plants?

What does “Warm December” mean for native plants?

If this December has felt exceptionally warm, you aren’t imagining it. Baltimore, like much of the United States, has been experiencing an unusually warm month and a fitting conclusion to what is shaping up to be the Earth’s warmest in over 1,400 years. The mild temperatures aren’t universally reassuring, however. Many gardeners are concerned about…

Make a Holiday Wreath With Native Plants

Make a Holiday Wreath With Native Plants

Native plants provide more than just great food and habitat for wildlife: they also provide great beauty all year long. Although many holiday decorations make use of evergreen plants, like boxwoods and spruce, decorators are often surprised to learn that these plants are often not native to Maryland. So, for the second year, we are…

Five Plants You Think Are Native But Aren’t

Five Plants You Think Are Native But Aren’t

Because native plants have a long co-evolutionary history with the native wildlife of a location, they are uniquely well-suited choices for the modern garden. In this age of climate-change and habitat destruction, our gardens should do more than just look good: they must do good as well. Whether that means providing food and shelter for…

Hackberry: The Best Tree You’ve Never Heard About

Hackberry: The Best Tree You’ve Never Heard About

Few native trees are more deserving of appreciation, yet fail to receive it, than the common hackberry. Despite a slightly off-putting name, the native hackberry (Celtis occidentals) has all the attributes that homeowners want: Grows in a rounded, vase-like shape? Check. Resists disease? Check. Grows quickly? Check. Tolerates air pollution? Check. Is drought and salt…

Five Chuck Norris Native Plants

Five Chuck Norris Native Plants

Urban and suburban gardeners are no strangers to the battle with invasive plants. In large part, this is because many modern gardening practices seem to be almost perfectly designed to encourage invasive plants. Many invasive plants and weeds are adapted to a particular combination of conditions, namely low stress and high disturbance. Botanists call plants…